revulsion

Partly from Middle French révulsion and partly from Latin revulsiō.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvʌlʃən/, /ɹəˈvʌlʃən/

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• Hyphenation: re‧vul‧sion

revulsion (usually uncountable, plural revulsions)

1. Abhorrence, a sense of loathing, intense aversion, repugnance, repulsion, horror.
2. A sudden violent feeling of disgust.
3. (medicine) The treatment of one diseased area by acting elsewhere; counterirritation.
4. (obsolete) A strong pulling or drawing back; withdrawal.
   • c. 1670s (date written), Thomas Brown [i.e., Thomas Browne], “Sect[ion] X”, in John Jeffery, editor, Christian Morals, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] [A]t the University-Press, for Cornelius Crownfield printer to the University; and are to be sold by Mr. Knapton […]; and Mr. [John] Morphew […], published 1716, →OCLC, part III, page 91:

     To run on in deſpight of the Revulſions and Pul-backs of ſuch Remora’s aggravates our tranſgreſſions.

   • 1858, “Our Window”, in Emerson's Magazine and Putnam's Monthly, volume 6, page 329, column 1:

     The recent financial revulsion has revealed the feeble basis on which credit now stands, […]

5. (obsolete) A sudden reaction; a sudden and complete change of the feelings.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Result”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 234:

     We resolve, and our resolutions melt away with a word and a look: we are the toys of an emotion. And yet I think Norbourne was right in his sudden revulsion in favour of his uncle. We are rarely wrong when we act from impulse.

   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, pages 108–109:

     A sudden and violent revulsion of feeling, both in the parliament and in the country, followed.

• revulsive